Thursday, April 22, 2010

I am so excited to share my latest stamp set today. Vintage Backgrounds is a set I've been wanting to have for a VERY LONG time. It's one of those stamp "staples" that you will use often on your projects for any occasions.

My first card card uses the houndstooth, herringbone and text patterns from Vintage Backgrounds. With this set, you can customize your border or background to your heart's content. The argyle is one of the digi papers in the Bright and Grungy Argyles and the polka dot paper in the smallest flower is from the new Bright and Grungy Dots digi paper pack. The sentiment is from the Spring Has Sprung set.

I've been enjoying making these paper flowers. The flowers use the herringbone and houndstooth patterns from the set. The tutorial is at the end of this post.Here's another card using the herringbone pattern as the background. The paper flower uses the houndstooth pattern and the vintage lace image is used as a border. The butterflies and leaves have the text pattern, also included in the Vintage Backgrounds set. The flower images are from the Spring Mix Stamp TV kit.

Here's a close up of the flower.

Here's another card that also uses Asela's Sew Pretty set. I used the text as background for the sentiment and I created a brown border from the houndstooth image. I colored the machine with Copics and swiped it several times with the blender pen to get the retro look I was going for.

The Release Party is tomorrow night on StampTV. We would LOVE to have you join us for the fun! There will be challenges, contest questions, chatter, as well as tons of samples from the Design Team members from 7-10 (central time) all leading to the new products being available in GinaK's online store at 10pm.

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Paper Roses Tutorial - I don't claim that this idea is originally mine, but I remember doing this as a kid and this is how I made the flowers on my projects :-).

Step 1: Cut a square from patterned paper. I cut a 4" square from one of the polka dot papers from the new Bright and Grungy Dots pack.

Step 2: Using a pencil, free hand draw a swirl on the back side.

Step 3: Using the swirl as a guide, cut the paper with decorative scissors (or plain as in my second card sample above).

Step 4: Curl up the scalloped edge.

Step 5: Start rolling the strip from the end. Make it as tight as possible.

Step 6: Unwind as much as you'd like. The looser the roll, the wider the flower will be.

Step 7: Apply glue on the bottom. I found that tacky glue is the best for this technique.Press down and let dry.

Step 8: For the leaf, cut a small rectangle of paper. I used one with text from the Vintage Backgrounds set on it.

Thank you for the tutorial on the flower, I'm going to try it. Yours are so pretty. My daughters family is taking a cruise around Italy and Greece in May and one of their stops is Croatia. She showed it to me on the may. So now I now I know where you serve. Blessings

Super cards Nina! Your new set will be so versatile! Thanks for the flower tutorial. I've made smaller flowers like this using a quilling tool, but havenever made a large one - I will have to give it a try!

Oh Nina, the cards and your stamps are AMAZING. Your really know how to showcase them for versatility. I am so thankful for the flower tutorial, I have tried this a few times on my own but never obtained usable results. I'll give it another shot now.

Wow Nina. Love your stunning creations and beautiful set. Great flower tutorial too. A friend of mine did the same tutorial the other day but i LOVE how you cut the spirals with a scalloped edge. CLEVER. :) LOOKS awesome!

WOW girl! Thank you for the tutorial, these flowers are awesome and I'm certainly giving it a try today! your work is stunning, as always, and the new stamps look so great, that I wish Gina was sponsoring us again! haha

Oh Nina! Where do I even begin? Your latest set is absolutely amazing and so versatile! Love that you can create soooo many wonderful projects with it. And your roses are fabulous, I'm definitely CASE-ing and linking back to you!! Wonderful job as always, you never cease to amaze me. ;)

Hi Nina - what gorgeous flowers - they are perfect for SSIC - thanks for the tutorial, I am going to be making these - I love your cards and your fabulous new set - It is always a pleasure to come and visit you, your work is inspiring! Thanks for playing along with Stampin' Sisters in Christ this week, we would love to see you again! {{{hugs}}}Linda SSIC Design Team

What a nifty little tutorial, thank you! It creates such pretty flowers, but a lot of it is in the paper choice and you chose some very nice paper to embellish your card. Lovely! Thank you for participating in the Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge this week!

Hi! I wanted you to know that I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE these flowers!! I was so inspired by this tut that I combined it with another tut to make metal flowers. I basically made YOUR flowers out of metal. I loved how they turned out! You can check them out here: www.theartfulmama.blogspot.comThanks SO much for the wonderful tut and a drop-dead gorgeous blog!!!xoxooxoxxooxSusan Chongbeegsmachine@yahoo.com

Nina, what beautiful cards! Thanks so much for sharing the floer tutorial. I am going to have to try to make one. I just love the vintage-y look on all of your cards. Thanks for all of the vintage inspiration. Lovely lovely cards!

All content, including photos, freebies, images and text, are copyrighted by Nina C Brackett. Feel free to be inspired by them and use the freebies, but please give proper credit by linking to my blog. All freebies are for your own personal use only. Don't share them with others in any form whatsoever, but direct your friends to my blog to get their own copy. Please email me with any questions. Thanks.